Life After #PitchWars: A Rejection Story
So you weren’t selected for PitchWars. First of all, you’re in good company.
Me. I’m talking about me. I was never selected for PitchWars, either.
Okay, there are LOTS of other writers who’ve gone on to be crazy successful also never selected for PitchWars. But like, this is my blog so here we’re talking mostly about me.
I don’t feel particularly well equipped at this stage of my writing career to dole out advice, but not being selected for PitchWars? That I have advice on.
I worked hard to finish and clean up my very first completed manuscript for entry in PitchWars 2017. I was so proud of that book. I passed the manuscript around to my friends and they all gushed. “You’re so talented!” “This should be a movie!”
Bless their hearts.
I sent that little baby MS off to my dream PitchWars mentors, had a complete emotional breakdown after four days of a silent inbox, finally got one request, and then when the final list of mentees was posted, scrolled many times searching for my name. Ctrl + F just to be sure.
Nothing.
I was pretty bummed. Cry-at-my-desk-at-work bummed. I thought for sure that MS was pure gold and only needed the trained eye of an established romance writer to polish it up and sell it. Turns out, that MS was not gold. It was good. I guess. But holy shit, did it need work. A LOT of work. I’m talking head hopping, truncated sex scenes, confusing plot threads never tied up, and more echoes and adjectives than Kim K has Birkins.
The point is, I finished a MS. It was a start. I gathered myself up, got on Twitter, and used #CPMatch to connect with critique partners who would turn into close friends with so much insanely valuable feedback that my little mediocre MS turned into something I could really be proud of.
Cut to 2018. PitchWars Take 2. I wrote a new MS, polished her up, sent her off. Two requests, but once again, no mentor. This time I knew what to do. I worked hard with my CPs, read all the craft books I could fit into my schedule, and became an infinitely better writer.
#PitMad 2018. My newly-discovered writing group (SHOUT OUT #RCHAT WHUT) helped me craft pitches that perfectly captured the spirit of my MS. I got a bunch of likes. I was over the moon. I sent out pages IMMEDIATELY. And then in February of 2019, it happened. My beloved agent reached out and offered me an R&R. Her edits made all the sense in the world. She saw the potential in that MS that I’d already worked so hard on, and her feedback helped turn it into the book I knew it could be, but didn’t know how to get to on my own.
I signed with Eva Scalzo at Speilburg Literary in April 2019 and have felt like the luckiest girl in the world ever since. I’m currently on sub and have received 2 rejections from editors so far. The weird part is, I feel so much more equipped to handle these disappointments because of the invaluable support system I discovered post-PitchWars. My writing group, my agent, my CPs. They are all women (guys are okay too, but god, it feels good to be championed by women!) who’ve been through the trenches - they’ve indie pubbed, they’ve traditionally pubbed, they’ve gone through rejections, they’ve queried, they’ve shelved books and had rights returned. They are warriors and they’re the people I am privileged to call my team. So when the rejections roll in (as rejections tend to do), I know I’ll be alright. My first PitchWars rejection crushed me. My most recent editor rejection? Okay, so I ate a couple donuts to make myself feel better. But I knew I’d been through enough already to face whatever challenge came next. PitchWars is the beginning - whether you’re selected or not.